'Aim is to support companies in cross-border growth'

Homegrown venture debt fund Stride Ventures is raising three parallel funds across India, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), and the UK with a combined target of $600 million, of which half has already been raised. The move signals a shift from venture debt as a regional credit product to being used as a cross-border financing tool, particularly as founders increasingly expand beyond a single geography, Managing Partner Apoorva Sharma tells Ayanti Bera. Excerpts:

- APOORVA SHARMA, MANAGING PARTNER, STRIDE VENTURES

Stride just announced a $600-million raise. Is this one large fund or multiple funds? These are three separate funds across three geographies — India (Stride India Fund IV), the GCC, and the UK— adding up to a cumulative corpus of $600 million. We’ve already raised $300 million of that in the last six months and aim to close the rest by March. Structurally, all three funds are independent and regulated separately.

Why did you announce them together if they are all independent? Because we're raising them in parallel, the cumulative announcement reflects the direction of the firm. Until now, venture debt has been a regional product, but startups are increasingly building for multiple geographies, and there is no credit provider today that can support a founder’s credit journey across multiple markets. We want to be that partner.